It was July 6, 2012 when our President signed the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act into law. MAP-21 as it is commonly known is a very important piece of legislation that allocated over a $100 Billion dollars to help grow our economy, create jobs, and repair roads.

MAP-21 is much broader than that. The money goes toward repairing our crumbling infrastructure, safety, transit systems, bridges, public transit, rail, as well as bike and pedestrian paths. The bill was signed into law in 2012 and was set for two years which means the money is spent and gone but the effects continue on.

When it comes to truckers, unfortunately too many don’t understand this law and how it affects them and their business. MAP-21 has been inserted into the latest carrier packets to help protect the broker from lawsuits and other legal actions which may at times be taken by a trucking company.image007_web

This is where the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) steps in. Their involvement in MAP-21 is in reducing crashes, injuries, and fatalities resulting from accidents involving big rigs.

MAP-21 as it pertains to the trucking industry was implemented to help raise the barriers to entry for new trucking companies looking to enter the market. In this way MAP-21 was designed to hold carriers to higher standards of safe operations. On the flip side MAP-21 was also designed to find and remove the safety hazards of trucking such as unsafe carriers, drivers, and equipment.

For Fiscal Year 2013, $561M was allocated for these purposes. An additional $572M was allocated for Fiscal Year 2014. A portion of this money was supposed to go toward the SMS system which was put in place to conduct investigations on companies that did not have sufficient safety records.

What exactly is MAP-21?FTA_Graph_1

  • MAP-21 allows the DOT to revoke registrations and carrier authorities for those individuals who have held back on important information they are required to disclose such as “incarceration”.
  • MAP-21 affects brokers as it increases broker bonds from the original $10,000 to the now in effect $75,000 surety bond.
  • MAP-21 also helped establish a Unified Registration System where each carrier, broker, or freight forwarder has to register a separate authority to conduct business in each respective business function.
  • MAP-21 also imposed more strict rules regulating the bond market. The goal was to create more transparency when it comes to payment of bond claims.
  • MAP-21 legislation requires Carriers to disclose ownership of multiple transportation companies. Furthermore, it requires familial relation between owners of freight transportation companies like truckers.
  • MAP-21 required all CMVs to have ELDs installed onboard their trucks. Event-on-board-recorders or EOBRs and ELDs were supposed to be installed across the board by now but we all know we’re not there yet. We also know what’s been happening with all the HOS rules and amendments to HOS regulations.
  • MAP-21 also establishes certain minimum training requirements to be followed by all carriers, large or small.
  • MAP-21 establishes a National Registry of CDL drivers which includes drug and alcohol testing results and driving history.

Personally, I’ve seen some of the biggest brokers use MAP-21 as part of their protection systems for litigation against Carriers like you and I. If you have questions about MAP-21 and want to learn more, I strongly recommend looking through the bill or at the very least doing a quick Google Search. Another and much easier way is to give OOIDA a call. From my experience, these guys are much more knowledgeable about MAP-21 than anyone else I’ve ever come across.Get Started with AFT Dispatch!